The staff, shaped like the Lord of Despair’s spear, began to sway through empty air like a conductor’s baton tuning a melody.

Standing in midair atop despair itself, the Lord of Despair faced Seong as waves of despair came crashing toward him. Seong swung a blade wreathed in darkness at the despair rushing in.

Paradoxically, the despairs were cleaved apart by darkness, splitting open and creating gaps—

But in rhythm with the tip of the Lord of Despair’s conducting staff, they began to take form once more.

The massive despair absorbed the negative energies of people’s despair, misfortune, and fear, beginning to emit a dark momentum without even a single ray of light.

As it took on an enormous shape, the despair flew straight at Seong.

It was far too large to be blocked with a sword alone, so Seong reached out—not with his blade, but with his hand—and used his power.

Split apart.

As he extended his hand with that thought, the immense negative energy contained within the despair was drawn toward Seong, and a grotesque, twisted, gigantic undead hand appeared, swallowing the massive despair whole.

To a Despair Ghoul that fed on darkness and despair, despair itself was little more than a snack.

Having swallowed the despair, the Despair Ghoul grew even larger—but then its belly convulsed, and the despair tore its way back out.

Puuuuuk———!!!

It was an undead without form or substance—

Yet it writhed in agony, and its very existence vanished outright.

The despair that tore through the Despair Ghoul absorbed the undead as it was, devouring despair upon despair, trying to manifest as Seong’s despair.

Watching this, Mihael’s eyes went wide as he shouted,

“Ahh!!! What is happening!? The undead that Seong summoned was killed instantly!?”

“H-h-he’s being pushed back!?”

Mihael and Rowell panicked and voiced their concern—

But Helena watched with a faint smirk, utterly unconcerned.

Naturally, the viewers sided more with Mihael than with Helena.

At a glance, it truly looked as though Seong was being pushed back.

On top of that, hadn’t Helena herself said earlier that Seong was getting pushed a little?

That only made the worry grow.

-What is this?????

-Is he going to lose like this? ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Demon King, win!!! ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Please win ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Can’t Helena go help him? ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-I really, really hope he wins.

Though people were desperately wishing for it—

Helena didn’t even consider stepping in.

If anything, she was openly cheering Seong on.

There were still plenty of things Seong could do right now.

He simply wasn’t using them yet.

That was why Helena did nothing at all, as if showing her absolute trust in him.

Seong, too, was aware that everyone was watching, which made him hesitate just a little.

Broadcasting his full strength might seem good at a glance, but it also meant exposing weaknesses or revealing his hand.

Still, he didn’t really care.

More than anything, he felt that it didn’t matter even if it was exposed.

If I win here, I’ll gain three lord powers.

And with that would come even more diverse methods.

Seong quickly ran the calculations in his head and reentered the fight.

The despair tuned by the Lord of Despair turned into a gigantic spear and flew toward Seong, and Seong tried to block it by shaping darkness.

But then—

Chwajajajaja.

The enormous spear of despair split in an instant, fragmenting into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of spears that all rushed toward Seong.

As Seong hardened the darkness in response, glossy, obsidian-like dark ore appeared and flew toward all the spears.

Obsidian blades of darkness shot toward the countless spears formed from despair.

However, as if the durability of the dark obsidian blades was inferior to that of the despair-spears, they shattered into pieces and vanished the moment they collided.

Despair itself, embodied.

But Seong’s obsidian blades of darkness weren’t limited to merely tens of thousands.

Hundreds of thousands of blades poured through the air, and for a moment it felt as though the surroundings were completely swallowed by darkness.

If one wasn’t enough, then two. If two weren’t enough, then four. If four weren’t enough, then more than ten blades scattered toward each spear of despair—and little by little, those spears began to vanish.

The tens of thousands of despair-spears were quickly erased, and with only darkness remaining, a storm of blades surged toward the Lord of Despair.

“Come.”

The Lord of Despair raised both arms and called out boldly toward the darkness—

And once again, the surroundings were dyed in despair.

Then—

“Even darkness is a part of despair.”

With those words, the aura of darkness became tainted with despair, and half of the incoming blades were transformed into despair as well, turning back on the obsidian blades of darkness and mutual destruction erupted.

At the versatility with which the Lord of Despair wielded the concept of despair itself, Seong clicked his tongue.

Faced with a technique that used the very concept of a “desperate situation” to shape reality like this, Seong couldn’t help but grin.

His control was outstanding.

Seong believed his own control to be no less impressive—

But if this goes on, it’ll turn into a war of attrition.

In a war of attrition, the Lord of Despair, who could summon minions through despair, held the advantage.

Knowing full well that the Lord of Despair was deliberately steering things that way, Seong could only smile wryly.

At this point, he realized that ranged attacks alone would lead nowhere.

With that, Seong let darkness fully settle into his body, preparing to use his sword in earnest.

Not only that—he mixed in the power of destruction and the power of the abyss as well.

He still hadn’t obtained despair itself through Helena’s absurdly strong swordsmanship, so he couldn’t mix despair in just yet.

“Hm.”

Watching Seong don his armor of darkness, the Lord of Despair’s featureless face twisted, if only slightly.

He didn’t know exactly what move Seong was planning—

But it was clear that Seong had found a way to counter him.

The Lord of Despair began preparing as well.

He wrapped himself in despair and equipped his weapon.

He was confident that Seong would no longer respond from long range.

Likewise, Seong added two more elements.

What should have been darkness deeper and blacker than pitch began to glow here and there, and along with that light, a sinister aura started to coil around him.

As Seong’s entire body transformed into something resembling the cosmos itself, like gazing upon a vast galaxy—

It felt as though something unimaginably immense had descended upon him.

The Lord of Despair continued to frown.

Yet in terms of sheer rank, the Lord of Despair still stood slightly above Seong.

Because of that, he didn’t think too much of it and tightened his grip on his spear.

And those watching—

“Ahh, both of them are going all out! Seong looks like he’s become the universe itself, while the Lord of Despair coils despair around himself and becomes despair incarnate!!! The two are about to clash!!!”

-This is insane, who’s going to win?

-He was getting pushed earlier, will he be okay?

-Please win ㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠ

-I came here to see him win!!!!!!

-That universe thing is insanely cool;;;

-Seriously, it’s awesome.

-What even is that, that’s sick;;;

The viewers were completely captivated by Seong’s transformed appearance.

One and all, they cheered for Seong.

And though Seong couldn’t see or hear those cheers—

He flew forward with everything he had, straight toward the Lord of Despair.

A galactic trajectory—like a comet, or the ring of a planet—was carved into the empty air as Seong surged forward.

Likewise, the despair flying toward him left trails of despair in its wake, racing forward with long tails.

Seong swung his sword at the Lord of Despair charging toward him.

The Lord of Despair thrust his spear in response.

The moment the spear tip ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ collided precisely with the blade—

A colossal explosion erupted, like the very first explosion that gave birth to the universe—now large enough to overturn and swallow it whole. Space twisted, and the blast surged outward with the power to annihilate everything it touched.

Perr——————————eong!!!

Heat like that of a newborn star swept through the surroundings. Even though the space was divided into layers, that dimension-crossing heat faintly reached the place where Mihael and the backup team were.

The heat that crossed dimensions was terrifying in its intensity, and even its lingering traces were enough to completely wipe out Mihael’s party.

But Helena casually deployed a barrier, protecting the exhausted backup team and Mihael’s group—

Even as the floor, ceiling, and walls began to melt away.

Seeing that, Mihael cried out in horror.

“A-ahhh! Even with the dimensions divided, heat this terrifying has reached all the way here!!! If not for Helena, we could have been completely wiped out!!! The explosion is obstructing our view, so it’s hard to see what’s happening right now!”

Mihael continued the broadcast without stopping.

Even though the explosion made it impossible to see the situation over there for the moment, he didn’t pause.

“Ahh, so this is what caused that area to turn into such a mess after so many clashes like this. Truly unbelievable power!!!”

The viewers couldn’t help but agree.

Just how powerful did you have to be for heat like this to reach even the outside?

Then, one by one, viewers began speaking up.

-I’m in Mugan City and the temperature suddenly went up;;;;

-You’re saying that’s because of the Demon King???

-That’s an exaggeration.

-Not an exaggeration;;; come to Mugan City, it’s seriously hot. It’s winter but it suddenly feels like summer;;;

-That’s insane;;;;;;

-I’m in Mugan City too, it’s real. The NPCs are freaking out.

-They’re saying it suddenly got hot and panicking;;;;

-I think there was even a bit of an earthquake.

As more and more testimonies poured in, even the skeptics had no choice but to believe it.

Leaving behind the viewers who were reeling from the sheer magnitude of Seong’s battle and the heat it brought—

Helena spoke.

“I can see them now.”

At her words, Mihael and the viewers looked to where Helena was pointing.

Sure enough, from within the explosion itself, two figures burst out—completely unscathed.

They were still swinging sword and spear, continuing their exchange of blows.

“W-wait...!?”

Mihael swallowed hard, staring at the sight before him.

“That swordsmanship is...?”